Dean’s Letter

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION

The importance of fairness and equity in the provision of health care is obvious. We have worked hard at your UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences to ensure that the faculty members and students who will be future health care providers here and elsewhere resemble and reflect the demographics of the population of North Dakota and the region. As you know, one of the region’s—and nation’s—largest groups of underserved individuals is American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN). But through a variety of pathway and other programs, many of which are coordinated through our renowned Indians Into Medicine (INMED) program, we have welcomed a significant number of individuals from this demographic into our medical school class. In fact, almost ten percent of all four MD classes identify as AI/AN, and the SMHS is proud that it is at or near the top of the list of medical schools in the country as far as the fraction of its classes that identify as such. Similarly, our faculty ranks boast an important contingent of AI/ AN professors and one of the only Indigenous associate deans in the nation.

Leading our efforts in promoting diversity throughout the SMHS are two faculty members, Dr. Don Warne, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and Dr. Holly BrownBorg, assistant dean for gender equity. I don’t know of any other school or college in the entire North Dakota University System that has one—let alone two—deans focused on DEI activities. Drs. Warne and Brown-Borg partner with Dr. Tamba-Kuii Bailey, assistant professor in the UND College of Education & Human Development and special assistant to the president for Diversity & Inclusion, to ensure alignment of the DEI efforts of the SMHS with that of UND as a whole.

As indicated, their efforts are paying dividends as we strive for a more inclusive and diverse workforce at the SMHS and a student body balance that reflects the demographics of the state and region. For example, over the past three years we hired 49 new faculty members, 31 of whom are female and six of whom are AI/AN. For our typical medical student class of 78 students, seven slots are reserved for INMED students. And as you might have heard, our M.D. Class of 2025 is more than 60% female. This is the highest percentage of female first-year students the School has ever seen.

The other important focus for medical student recruitment is a rural background, and over the past two years we’ve offered about half of our available slots to those students. To be sure, not all of those applicants decided to come to UND, so we need to continue to work hard not only to attract candidates but also to get them to be matriculants. Recently we’ve seen an interesting phenomenon as the country has, in general, embraced the importance of DEI and intensified efforts to become more diverse in various areas. What we’ve seen recently applies specifically to our INMED applicants. Some of them are being actively recruited by other medical schools and they are being enticed away by generous scholarship offers elsewhere. We have tried to respond by increasing our own scholarship support available for INMED students, and Dr. Warne has been very successful in involving philanthropic donors to provide two additional major scholarships for INMED students. However, we could use even more help to remain competitive in what has been a very competitive marketplace for talent!

So please, if you can, we’d really appreciate any additional financial support that you might be able to provide. Please be in touch with Dr. Warne at donald.warne@UND.edu or with Jeff Dodson, Director of Development for the SMHS, at jeffd@UNDfoundation.org. Our future students will be very appreciative for your support!

In closing, I’d like to thank again our many alumni, friends, colleagues, and supporters who donate their time, advice, knowledge, experience, and dollars to support our educational and research programs. No other medical school in the country can boast such a wonderfully robust voluntary (clinical) faculty roster; as you may know, more than two out of three of all the practicing physicians in North Dakota are clinical faculty members at the SMHS and are ready and willing (and able!) to help produce the next generation of physicians. Thank you for all that you do!

Joshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPH Vice President for Health Affairs, UND Dean, School of Medicine & Health Sciences